Country Bias Research Articles

Foreign-Born Resident Networks and Stock Comovement: When Local Bias Meets Home (Country) Bias

AbstractForeign migration flows have important stock market consequences. Foreign-born resident networks within U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) are associated with excess return comovement between locally headquartered stocks and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) from countries with ties to the MSA through the network of foreign-born residents. This comovement is hardly due to correlated fundamentals and at least partially driven by correlated trading within members of a common investor base consisting of foreign-born residents. Our evidence has implications for both investors and foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) seeking to reap benefits from cross-listings and is consistent with the notion that foreign-born residents exhibit both local bias and home (country) bias.

Exploring Demands and Consumption Processes of Green Products: The Case of Pakistani Consumers

Sustainable development and green initiatives continue to receive increased attention in the domain of business and consumers behavior. It is the liability of researchers, practitioner and policy makers to continuously identify factors that can affect the motivation and behavior of people to act in accordance with green behavior patterns. The main purpose for conducting this study is to fill in the gap in the literature by exploring demand and consumption of green consumer’s product. In this study, semi structured interviews were conducted in-depth with the Pakistani green consumers in order to discuss the prospective crucial factors including: key characteristics of green product, reasons to buy environment-friendly products, feelings on the subject of price, confidence in product, readiness to compromise, environmental awareness, considering alternatives, point of purchase, utilization and discarding. This is an exploratory study and in order to ensure objectivity the established guidelines were followed. The findings of this study are limited to the green consumers of Pakistan therefore; any potential country bias can be removed by its replication in other countries. On average most of the studies conducted in the domain of marketing failed to segment green consumers that resulted in indefinable and conflicting results. Only few studies have adopted qualitative research approaches in exploring the behavior of green consumers. It explores the demands of green consumer product, along with their consumption processes, and provides a valuable insight and sound ground for academicians who are interested in green consumption behavior in concerned emerging markets. It also presents an in depth investigation of consumer purchase and consumption patterns towards green products while providing a valuable insight for practitioners and policy makers and it has revealed important theoretical dimensions for in aforementioned context.

International Portfolio Prospects and Concerns

The recent financial crisis amplifies the need for an updated and more universal investment strategy for both individuals and corporate investors. Diversification satisfies that condition, as it provides access to different economies operating in different countries while, simultaneously, it spreads the risk across different asset allocation. However, to benefit the advantages of a diversified portfolio, a sophisticated decision making process and appeal to re-planning are required. Otherwise, international investors have to face the consequences of political-country risk and currency risk. The goal of this research is to correlate the benefits of diversification with risk undertaking for either individual or corporate investors. The main conclusion is that investors should engage in international diversification, eliminating home country bias where investors prefer to invest in their own domestic environment (Maniam et al, 2005). In addition, the paper finds that the optimal portfolio is not static and its benefits vary across different types of markets included in portfolios.

Subjective Versus Quantitative Methods of Assessing Breast Density.

In order to find a consistent, simple and time-efficient method of assessing mammographic breast density (MBD), different methods of assessing density comparing subjective, quantitative, semi-subjective and semi-quantitative methods were investigated. Subjective MBD of anonymized mammographic cases (n = 250) from a national breast-screening programme was rated by 49 radiologists from two countries (UK and USA) who were voluntarily recruited. Quantitatively, three measurement methods, namely VOLPARA, Hand Delineation (HD) and ImageJ (IJ) were used to calculate breast density using the same set of cases, however, for VOLPARA only mammographic cases (n = 122) with full raw digital data were included. The agreement level between methods was analysed using weighted kappa test. Agreement between UK and USA radiologists and VOLPARA varied from moderate (κw = 0.589) to substantial (κw = 0.639), respectively. The levels of agreement between USA, UK radiologists, VOLPARA with IJ were substantial (κw = 0.752, 0.768, 0.603), and with HD the levels of agreement varied from moderate to substantial (κw = 0.632, 0.680, 0.597), respectively. This study found that there is variability between subjective and objective MBD assessment methods, internationally. These results will add to the evidence base, emphasising the need for consistent, simple and time-efficient MBD assessment methods. Additionally, the quickest method to assess density is the subjective assessment, followed by VOLPARA, which is compatible with a busy clinical setting. Moreover, the use of a more limited two-scale system improves agreement levels and could help minimise any potential country bias.

John Bogle Had It Right: The Benefits of International Diversification Are Limited

Stock index research over long-term periods supports a U-shaped relationship of the total risk to the allocation to foreign stocks (adding foreign equities lowers risk at first then increases it). This study constructs mean–variance efficient frontiers using 28 country exchange-traded funds (ETFs) available to US investors over two periods: 1996–2018 (mostly developed countries) and 2010–2018 (many emerging markets) to determine the optimal global allocation. Over both periods, the US-only ETF had the highest Sharpe ratio. For 1996–2018, the empirical mean–variance “market” portfolio of 17 country ETFs had a 94.5% allocation to the United States, and the minimum-variance portfolio had 56.55% in the United States. Over the 2010–2018 period, the empirical tangent portfolio of 28 country ETFs had a 100% allocation to the United States, and the minimum-variance threshold for efficiency was 52.65%. For both periods, global portfolios based on gross domestic product or market capitalization weights were highly inefficient. Home-country bias may not be a bias at all. Perhaps investors just rationally maximize the return-to-risk trade-off. <b>TOPICS:</b>Wealth management, exchange-traded funds and applications, global markets <b>Key Findings</b> • The empirical “market portfolio” of 28 country ETFs over 2010–2018 shows a 100% allocation to the United States. • The empirical “market portfolio” of 17 country ETFs over 1996–2018 shows a 94.5% allocation to the United States. • Strong US home country bias mean-variance dominates cap- or GDP-weighting in building global index portfolios.

Power Distance and Physician-Nurse Collegial Relations Across 14 European Countries: National Culture is Not Merely a Nuisance Factor in International Comparative Research.

This study illustrates the huge untapped potential of quantifying the impact of culture in making meaningful comparisons across groups. Our focus is on cross-national differences in nurses' reports of their relations with physicians, and how the measurement of this complex construct and the evaluation of true differences are related to dimensions of national culture. We examine across 14 European countries the association between indices of national culture from the seminal work of Hofstede and 39,435 nurses' ratings of their relations with physicians. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate strong factorial invariance across countries and to examine the influence of power distance and masculinity. There was wide variation across countries in nurses' reports of their relations with physicians. Strong factorial invariance was shown for a one-factor model, which confirmed that across countries the seven survey items measure a common factor of physician-nurse relations. This model showed no country bias for any of the seven survey items, which suggests that differences across countries reflect true differences. These true differences were significantly associated with variation in country values of power distance, which showed a significant negative correlation with physician-nurse relations. Continuously pursuing a better understanding of characteristics that impact the studied indicators, such as national culture, is elementary to better understand the construct under study. In this application, country values of power distance negatively impacted nurse-reported relations with physicians, which strongly varied across countries. Better nurse-reported relations between nurses and physicians link to higher nurse job satisfaction, lower emotional exhaustion, better nurse-perceived quality of care, and lower patient mortality. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index is an excellent instrument to characterize variation in working relations between nurses and physicians as well as physicians' professional posture towards nurses.

Collective nostalgia and domestic country bias.

Three experiments tested and supported the hypothesis that collective nostalgia-nostalgia that is experienced when one thinks of oneself in terms of a particular social identity or as a member of a particular group and that concerns events or objects related to this group-increases individuals' ethnocentric preference for ingroup (compared to outgroup) products. Greek participants who recalled collective nostalgic experiences shared with other Greeks (compared to controls) evinced a highly robust preference for Greek (compared to foreign) consumer products. This preference is referred to as domestic country bias. Following a systematic replicate-and-extend strategy, we demonstrated that both idiographic and nomothetic inductions of collective nostalgia increased domestic country bias (Experiment 1), that collective nostalgia increased domestic country bias across different product categories (Experiment 2), and that collective self-esteem mediated the effect of collective nostalgia on domestic country bias and did so independently of positive affect (Experiment 3). We discuss theoretical and practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Not All Heroes Wear CAPEs: Creation of a Global Stock Investment CEILING (Country Equity Index Leading Indicator for Near-term Gains)

Investors have a home country bias when it comes to investing, despite the diversification benefits that a global scope can provide. This over-reliance on domestic markets can be reduced through reliable indicators that inform investors of how global markets are performing. While ubiquitous indicators such as the CAPE ratio can provide an idea of market positioning, mostly all of these are not useful on a typical investment timescale. This led to the development of the County Equity Index Leading Indicator for Near-term Gains (CEILING), an indicator that delivers daily global market positioning for over 100 countries, providing strong and weak signals for value and growth potential. CEILING shows strong correlation with growth and value signals, and even shows potential viability as an investment strategy, with gross returns of over 10% or more depending on the rebalancing period.

The implication of country disposition in consumer response to ingredient branding strategies

In this research, we examined the effect of the country of origin (COO) image of an ingredient brand on consumers' evaluation of a host brand. Using airlines as host products and aircraft as ingredients, two experiments were conducted in Brazil and Canada respectively, to assess the COO effect of an ingredient brand on the host brand. Results show that a local host brand from a country with a favorable COO image (Canada) is unaffected by an ingredient brand from a country with an unfavorable COO image (Brazil), whereas a local host brand from a country with an unfavorable COO image is benefited by an ingredient brand from a country with a favorable COO image. This effect is moderated by a home country bias of consumers. Evaluation of the local host brand was unaffected by the COO image of the ingredient brand among those with a high bias toward local brands.

Studying marriage migration to Europe from below: informal practices of government, border struggles and multiple entanglements

The growing importance of marriage as a migration strategy has been accompanied by a problematisation and securitization of marriages between binational couples in media and policy discourse. Moreover, marriage migration has received increased scholarly attention. In this article, we propose an analytical framework for the study of marriage migration and its government that permits to transcend three biases and related blind spots that we identify in the existing literature. While this literature offers rich insights into marriage migration and states’ ever more laboured attempts to control and regulate it, this literature is, nevertheless, characterised by an implementation gap bias, a control bias and, finally, a destination country bias. To address these biases, we propose an analytical framework that is inspired by the autonomy of migration approach. We propose to ethnographically study binational couples’ encounters with marriage migration related authorities in countries of destination and citizenship with a particular focus on binational couples’ struggles for visas, resident permits and a right to family life. Illustrated through ethnographic research, we show that this methodology permits to highlight three aspects of marriage migration that have not been sufficiently considered so far. These include the securitization of marriage migration ‘from below’ through informal practices of government on the ‘street-level’, binational couples’ inherently political border struggles and their capacity to negotiate restrictive legislations and bureaucratic hurdles and, finally, what we call the multiple entanglements of binational couples in the border and citizenship regimes of two or more nation-state orders.

Developing-Economy preferences for imported organic food products

Preference for imported products are often found in developing countries. A mixed method case study is employed to investigate why and when, using Thailand and organic food as the case. In-store interviews (N = 67), two focus groups (N = 16) and an online survey with consumers screened for knowledge of organic food (N = 965) are reported. A domestic country bias is revealed, but co-existing with a higher trust in the standards and certifications of developed countries. Hence, developed countries' credible institutions are a competitive advantage that allows them to compete with similar but cheaper products from developing countries.

Are credit rating agencies regionally biased?

We investigate claims of regional bias in the sovereign credit ratings given by the rating agencies Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s by considering a wide range of macroeconomic, financial, institutional, regional and geopolitical indicators for 99 countries categorized into eight regions plus the United States. Empirical results based on seemingly unrelated regressions indicate a strong home country bias towards the United States, while there seem to be no special biases against individual groups of countries. We also demonstrate how modeling errors such as omitted variables can increase dispersion in the estimated regional effects, causing agencies to appear biased.

Tourism Ethnocentrism and Its Effects on Tourist and Resident Behavior

People often demonstrate a home country bias toward their own nation over other nations. This bias is an important determinant of their behavior. Drawing on seminal research from marketing and psychology, the authors provide the first investigation of the tourism ethnocentrism (TE) phenomenon that captures tourists’ and residents’ motivation to support the domestic tourism economy. The research reported herein develops the parsimonious, reliable, and valid TE scale, and provides an empirical test thereof. The results show that TE is an important means to investigate both tourists’ and residents’ behavior. It drives tourists’ willingness to engage in and recommend domestic tourism, as well as residents’ support for domestic tourism development. The results further reveal that higher levels of tourists’ “perceived self-efficacy to contribute to the domestic economy” and lower levels of “perceived economy support of others” strengthen TE’s effect. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.

Explaining inconsistencies in implicit and explicit attitudes towards domestic and foreign products

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the inconsistency of explicit and implicit domestic country bias (DCB) across different types of products and in the context of two countries.Design/methodology/approachTwo studies in two countries are conducted to examine the inconsistencies in implicit and explicit DCB. The first study collected data through mall intercept survey method in Taiwan and identified 189 valid respondents. The second study applied a mixed (within and between subjects) factorial experiment in China using 200 subjects.FindingsResults show that explicit and implicit attitudes are moderately related to each other. The results also confirm that ethnic product typicality can explain inconsistencies in both explicit and implicit DCB. For ethnically typical products, DCB is more pronounced in consumers’ explicit attitudes than in consumers’ implicit attitudes. On the contrary, for ethnically atypical goods, DCB makes itself present in both explicit and implicit attitudes.Originality/valueThe results shed new light on DCB and confirm that the bias could divaricate between explicit and implicit attitudes in the case of ethnically typical products.

Home Country Bias and Majority Outgroup Consumption: Evidence From the Introduction of Islamic Banking in Mauritius

In this paper, we investigate the home country bias and liability of foreignness regarding financial services products to address the question: “What factors would induce a Hindu or Christian utilize newly introduced Islamic Banking products when conventional banking products are already available?” Specifically, we examine the impact of the introduction of a religion-based banking system, Islamic banking, into a culturally heterogeneous country. Specifically, this paper examines branding efforts of banks surrounding the adoption of Islamic Banking (IB) services, where Muslims are a minority out-group and there are substantial diverse populations of many faiths. We contribute to three distinct bodies of literature: first, we assess whether the concept of “liability of foreignness” applies to financial services products within a country related to religious orientation. Second, we examine the role of financial services marketing in overcoming any liabilities of “foreignness” (related to cultural or psychic distance) related to investment in newly introduced financial products. Third, we add to the literature related to the adoption of Islamic Banking system products and services. We argue that a liability of foreignness existed for IB products upon introduction in Mauritius. Yet, this cultural bias can be overcome through effective financial services marketing, as uunderstanding and awareness of IB concepts is the most important predictor of adoption of IB products for both Muslims and non-Muslims. Our findings yield information for wealth managers seeking to overcome the liability of foreignness and home country bias, where the bias is towards one’s prevailing faith.

Measuring the Impact of Extrinsic Cues on Consumers’ Purchasing Decision for Food Products

Abstract The extrinsic product cues are becoming a very important aspect in product evaluation by consumers. Because of their importance many authors are exploring which extrinsic cues are considered more significant when evaluating the different kind of products. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the impact of most researched extrinsic cues such as the country of origin (COO), brand, and price on a purchasing decision for food products among consumers in Kosova. To explore the domestic country bias, the impact of the additional cue labeled as “domestic product” is studied. Based on a quantitative survey, the main findings of this study revealed that the brand, the price, the country of origin, and domestic branded products have positive impact on a consumer’s purchasing decision, since consumers rely on those extrinsic cues when making their purchasing decisions. When multiple cues are presented, the country of origin is considered as the most important cue, while the “domestic product” is least important to Kosovar consumers. The findings of this study are useful to food producers and marketers of food products, since it can provide them with useful information on what consumers consider most important when purchasing food products.

Global issue, developed country bias: the Paris climate conference as covered by daily print news organizations in 13 nations

To understand how media portrayed the pivotal 2015 UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, we assessed 2580 articles that appeared during the 2 weeks of the conference in the online versions of the two or three leading print newspapers in four developed countries, six emerging economies, and three developing countries: the USA, France, UK, Australia, India, China, South Africa, Brazil, Bolivia, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Categorization by key topics revealed that much of the coverage left readers with little understanding of many of the issues discussed at COP21, and in particular, those of high priority to developing nations. For example, there was little coverage of adaptation to climate impacts and far higher coverage of emissions reductions (mitigation). Print stories largely were updates on the talks, or focused on activists, the actions of world leaders at the conference, and the environmental effects of climate change. Furthermore, articles under-reported key issues for poorer nations such as equity, human rights, and the effects on human populations. Online coverage by print news organizations was heavily skewed towards the developed world, with little discussion of the most vulnerable countries or the issues that are important to them. These trends highlight the bias of coverage to developed nation perspectives and the persistence of journalistic norms that seek to emphasize drama, novelty, and balance in news coverage.

Brothers in blood, yet strangers to global brand purchase: A four-country study of the role of consumer personality

Although personality traits have repeatedly been shown to influence consumer behavior, their impact on willingness to buy global brands has yet to be empirically investigated. Based on a four-country sample (N=4539) of South East European consumers, we test alternative pathways linking consumer personality traits to global brand purchase intentions. Our findings show that extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness to experience impact purchase intentions mediated through consumers' global brand associations, domestic country bias and price sensitivity. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are considered and future research directions identified.

Broad and Narrow Country-of-Origin Effects and the Domestic Country Bias

ABSTRACTAcross three studies and three countries, this research specifies the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on domestic country bias. Extending extant research, it distinguishes the moderating effects of broad (country image, country production image) and narrow (country product category image) country-of-origin effects, demonstrating that the latter mitigate domestic country bias more strongly than the former. Moreover, nationality emerges as an antecedent of consumer ethnocentrism and domestic country bias. The findings enable international marketers to predict domestic country bias in different country markets. Additionally, this research advocates using a finer-grained, narrow view of country-of-origin effects, instead of a broad perspective.

Nigerian Shoppers/Consumers Preferences for Foreign and Domestic Products: Case Study of Clothes and Shoes

Based on extant literature, studies have shown that consumers adjust their attitudes toward a product according to its country-of-origin. This could be local home country bias or foreign country bias depending on individual orientation. The study compares Nigerian shoppers/consumer preferences for foreign and domestic produced clothes and shoes. The study focus on general product attributes, marketing activities and buying habits as preference indicators. The study also uses survey data of traders and shoppers to explain the issue. The research was conducted in Lagos and the samples selected include 600 respondents of both youth and adult between the ages of 16-60 years. The data were collected based on convenience sample from shoppers and traders in Lagos shopping malls and also Balogun/Tinubu market in Lagos Island-the most popular market for sales of clothes and shoes in Lagos. Collected data for the research was through questionnaire distribution to both youth and adults. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, percentages and t-test analysis. The findings indicated that Nigerian shoppers/consumers show more positive preference to foreign made clothes and shoes than to made in Nigeria, and that they are willing to pay higher price for foreign made clothes and shoes because they know that it is of a superior quality than made in Nigeria ones. Results also suggest that country of manufacture and product quality strongly influence consumer decision of purchasing foreign available clothes and shoes. The study provides insights with respect to Nigerian’s preference of foreign made clothes and shoes to locally-made ones.